Tai-Pan wrote:
Greetings purveyors of the CS art.Sodium Potassium Calcium Magnesium ChlorineIn the course of evolution there has been a progression from organisms
without a really separate internal environment to those with one. Most
organisms without such clear separation live in the sea, and there are
resemblance's between sea water and the blood plasma of vascular
animals. Some students of the subject have suggested that, when animals
moved out of the sea, they preserved an environment of sea water for
their cells by locking sea water up in the vascular system. Popularizers
have gone so far as to say that the cells of our bodies are lapped by
the waves of the seas in which our ancestors swam hundreds of million of
years ago. That is very poetic, but unfortunately it is not quite true.
Some matters of scientific attitude and principles, as well as of fact,
are involved, so the point is worth looking into a little further.Let us consider first whether the composition of sea water and of
plasma really is the same. Some data is presented in Table 1.Table 1
Relative amounts of some elements in sea water and some plasma's.
Sea water 100 3.61 3.91 12.1 181
Plasmas of;
King crab 100 5.62 4.06 11.2 187
Lobster 100 3.73 4.85 1.7 171
Man 100 6.75 3.10 0.7 129
In each case the amounts are relative to the amount of sodium present,
in percents.There is considerable similarity between the composition of sea water
and the three plasmas listed, but there are also remarkable differences.
The plasma of man has relatively almost twice as much potassium but less
than a fifteenth as much magnesium as sea water. Even the lobster, which
lives in sea water as its ancestors have always done, has distinctly
more calcium and much less magnesium. An attempt has been made to
explain these differences by the hypothesis that the composition of sea
water has changed and that the plasmas of different lines of descent
were shut off in circulatory systems at different times. That will not
work, however. To explain the amounts of magnesium would demand that
system arose first in the ancestry of man, somewhat later in that of the
lobster, and much later (almost recently) in the king crab. The evidence
of fossils and the relationships of these forms show that this certainly
is not true. A circulatory system arose at the same time in the
ancestors of the king crab and lobster and probably later (surely not
any earlier) in the ancestry of man.
There are distinct differences among these plasmas and between any one
of them and sea water. These differences cannot be explained by any
changes that may have occurred in the sea water. They can nevertheless
be explained in two other ways. In the first place, plasma is not really
derived from sea water. Even in primitive marine forms plasma is a fluid
that develops in organisms; it is not sea water somehow trapped in them.
The fact that plasma is in a closed system separated from the water of
the environment makes possible its "differences" from the sea water. In
the second place, plasma has evolved. It is different in different
organisms and has specific characteristics developed in each, just as
have the materials and structures of various organisms.
It is still true that all plasmas have similarities and that they some
what resemble sea water. Even though the quantity of the minerals may be
different the "ratio" of the minerals in relation to each other is very
similar in all the animals. In all cases we see that potassium is around
five percent of sodium, and chlorine is around one hundred eighty
percent of sodium. The ratio is the key to understanding the function
and operation of plasmas in animals. In round numbers we see also that
calcium is five percent or less of sodium and magnesium is around ten
percent or less of sodium. If the ratios become out of balance the
organism will die. The common sense explanation of these facts is quite
simple. The conditions under which cells can live actively are not
exactly the same for all cells, "but they are closely similar for all".
Cells can live in both sea water and plasma. If sea water and plasma
were not rather similar, this would not be possible. If sea water had a
decidedly different composition, primitive life of the sort that did
arise in the sea would have been impossible. "As animals with plasma
evolved, their plasmas were necessarily similar to each other and to sea
water because markedly different solutions would not have been
compatible with the activities of cells".--to be continued--
Bless you, Bob Lee
--
oozing on the muggy shore of the gulf coast
[email protected]
--
oozing on the muggy shore of the gulf coast
[email protected]
--
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